Diagnostic and Therapeutic Studies on Gastro-Enteritis in Dogs

Abstract

Acute canine diarrhea is one of the major disease problems that frequently seen in dogs' clinics that challenges veterinarians worldwide. Diarrhea etiology can be of infectious or non-infectious causes. Confound by its self-limiting condition, antibiotic is no-longer the answer in therapeutic intervention. This study was performed on a total number of 47 dogs, 27 diarrheic dog and 20 apparently healthy dogs enrolled as controls. The age ranged between 5 months to 7 years, both genders, and different breeds, all dogs were managed differently in different homes, environment and different diet. The important criteria of the chosen experimental dogs were: (1) diarrhea duration is less than 3 days, (2) selected dogs have not any evident disease condition other than diarrhea,(3) all selected dogs have no history of antibiotic medication 2 months prior to commencement of experiment and (4) tested negative for parvovirus infection and Toxocara infestation. Four studies were conducted as follow: 1- Physical and clinical examination was performed to all dogs, healthy control dogs, and diarrheic dogs before and after treatment. 2- Altered hematological and biochemical profile in all 27 diarrheic dogs regarding to healthy control dogs. 3- 17 of diarrheic dogs were treated using commercial lactobacillus based probiotic tablespoon/ twice daily per-os and the other 10 diarrheic dogs were treated conventionally using amoxicillin clavulanic acid and metronidazole. CBC and Biochemistry were conducted after treatment and compared statistically.